Lecture 1: What do you mean by ‘technology integration’ in your classroom? “Technology integration” is, obviously, at the heart of the content here, and in previous materials, vocabulary has been investigated and, hopefully, incorporated into your professional conversations. But, let’s review some aspects of the concept here:

Figure 1: Screen capture of Wikipedia definitionI have highlighted the last sentence for two reasons: 1) this is the key aspect that all of us as educators and parents must remember when incorporating technology into the curriculum, and 2) school leaders may need to remind the technology personnel of the relationship between technology and curriculum, as described here. But for now, let’s get back to the concept of ‘technology integration’ in the classroom. (PS: Later we will talk about Wikipedia and its use!). Below are screen captures taken from an excellent resource you can use personally and with colleagues (Figure 2).

This guide to technology integration, provided by Edutopia.org, which was originally the George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF.org), is very comprehensive and useful. Any teacher and/or school trying to figure out what to do with technology in the classroom will find this guide useful, even international schools. Yes, it was designed for US-based schools, but it still has applicable suggestions and information. One of the most useful might be the Why Integrate Technology? Section. It details the importance of technology integration, which might be useful to you when discussing technology needs and plans with parents and others in the school community, as well as fellow teachers. In another section, entitled Resource for Technology Integration, there are wonderful media pieces as well as articles. There’s even a PPT (PowerPoint) presentation you can watch and/or download to use in your school.

Figure 2: From: http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-resourcesIt is important that we are all using the same language with similar conceptual expectations when we talk about technology integration. Creating and integrating technology into the classroom can mean really different things to different folks, so starting by examining the concept of technology integration to create a common foundation from which to work is very important. CONCLUDING REMARKS: Understanding what you mean in your own mind when you say or think ‘technology integration’ is the first step in creating and using technology as part of curriculum, not just as ‘technology for the sake of technology’. Think about WHY you might use technology and HOW you might integrate it into already-good teaching! Technology will not make bad teaching good, but it can make good teaching better and/or more engaging for students. Think about that as you think ‘technology integration’. Now --- go on to Lecture 2.